Coffee consumption and risk of chronic disease in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)‐Germany study

Abstract

Early studies suggested that coffee consumption may increase risk of chronic disease. We investigated prospectively the association between coffee consumption and risk of chronic disease (type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer) in 42659 participants of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)‐Germany study. Coffee consumption was assessed by self‐administered food frequency questionnaire at baseline and incident cases of chronic disease were identified and medically verified during follow‐up. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated using multivariate Cox proportional hazard regression. During 8.9 years of follow‐up, we observed 1432 cases of type 2 diabetes, 704 cases of cardiovascular disease, and 1801 cancer cases as first qualifying event. Coffee consumption was not associated with the overall risk of chronic disease (≥4 cups/d compared to <1 cup/d, HR: 0.94; 95% CI: 0.84–1.05). We observed an inverse association between coffee consumption and type 2 diabetes risk (≥4 cups/d compared to <1 cup/d: HR: 0.77, 95% CI: 0.63–0.94) and no association with risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer (≥4 cups/d compared to <1 cup/d: HR: 1.10, 95% CI: 0.84–1.44; and HR: 0.97; 95% CI: 0.83–1.14, respectively). Our data indicate that coffee consumption does not increase risk of chronic disease, but may be linked to lower risk of type 2 diabetes.Grant Funding Source : Federal Ministry of Science, Germany (grant No. 01 EA 9401), the European Union (grant No. SOC 95 201408 05F02), and the German Cancer Aid (grant No. 70‐2201‐Bo2)